The seating chart, the invitation list, and who I really see

By Dean Collins

Jesus might make you uncomfortable the next time you do your seating chart. I am generally disinterested in seating charts, so I wouldn’t make a good event planner. I’m sure someone can explain to me the importance of seating charts and why certain people should be seated in the preferred seats. Jesus probably wouldn’t argue with certain efficiencies. For instance, if you are to speak at the event, then sitting near the platform from which you speak makes sense. It’s only practical.

Jesus might also make you uncomfortable if he comes to your house for dinner. I assume the Pharisee who invited Jesus for dinner after Sabbath services considered the risk of Jesus sitting at his table. Luke opens chapter 14 by telling us that the Pharisees were “watching him carefully.“ But it appears that Jesus was watching them as well. After Jesus kindly healed a man, once again on the Sabbath, they didn’t say anything. Jesus had silenced them with his indisputable wisdom and grace

Jockeying for seats

The Pharisees were silenced by the miracle but still jockeying for first class seats for dinner. Jesus noticed how they chose the seats of honor and he offered what seemed like practical advice. He might have even gotten a head nod from a few when he suggested the risk of assuming you should be upfront. Imagine the embarrassment of someone more honored arriving and the humiliation of being moved down from your pedestal in front of others. Social embarrassment is intense.

Just when they thought it was an etiquette lesson, Jesus dropped a truth about how things work in his Father’s Kingdom. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Pharisee who invited Jesus might have been thinking it would have been a more relaxing evening if he had left Jesus off the guest list. The evening continued and Jesus got more direct. He looked at the man who invited him and presented a rationale for who he should and shouldn’t invite to his next banquet. Jesus is apparently not bothered that his presence and his words might take the listener out of their comfort zone. When Jesus can get us out of our comfortable places, that is often where his truth breaks through.

Making excuses

One guy who was sitting near Jesus had an epiphany as Jesus spoke and blurted out, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus turned to the man and told another story. Jesus was filled with a lot of stories this night, and every one of them kept coming back to the subject of dinner parties and banquets. Jesus read the room as he continued.

Jesus told a story of many who had been invited to a great banquet but then started making excuses about why they couldn’t attend. I don’t know about you, but I find myself making lots of excuses for why I can’t accept invitations to dinners and banquets. I don’t think I’ve ever used buying an ox or a piece of land as my avoidance strategy, but I will admit to some weak or lame excuses. Sometimes I’m just too busy or tired of being with people. Sometimes my inner introvert just needs to be alone. But I’ll admit sadly that sometimes I just don’t like the agenda of the event or worse, certain people who will be at the event.

As the story builds, the master of the house gets angry at the feeble excuses of those not accepting his invitation, so he sends sent his servant to welcome what some saw as the undesirable to the banquet. “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city,” he said, “and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.”

Hopefully, we wouldn’t omit such people from our invitation list, yet I suspect many if not most of our invitations have been as thoughtful or inclusive as they might have been. The servant reported back to the master that he extended the invites more broadly, but there still were empty seats. The master urged the servant to compel or insist that people come. The servant was to go far and wide, but as he did, still not many accepted the invitation. The master basically replied he will deny access to those who gave their regrets.

Opening my eyes

As I finish reading the stories Jesus told that made the Pharisees and the disciples uncomfortable, I realize I am also uncomfortable. I still can’t attend every event I’m invited to attend. And I don’t have enough time and money to invite everyone I know from every stratum of life to a banquet I host.

 But what I can do is ask God to open my eyes to see all the people around me. I can ask the Holy Spirit to open my heart to be more caring and attentive to others. And I can have the humility to repent when I have excluded others from the welcoming arms of Jesus. It might not have been intentional, but it has happened

Lord, forgive us when we close doors you want opened. Give us hearts of compassion and generosity that we might welcome all your children to your banquet. Forgive us when we act like we are the keepers of the seating chart instead of the host who insists there is always room for one more at your table of grace.

Your time with God’s Word
Luke 14:1, 7-24 ESV

Photo by Jamie Coupaud on Unsplash 

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